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Rare Southern U.S. Winter Storm; Dangerous Cold Weather For Much of the Eastern U.S.; Critical Fire Weather for Southern California

A rare winter storm impacting the Southern U.S. will move offshore Wednesday morning. Behind the storm, arctic air will continue encompassing the eastern two-thirds of the Nation with only a slow return to normal temperatures expected by the end of the week. Moderate to strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity will maintain Critical fire weather conditions in southern California into Thursday. Read More >

Overview

A dangerous arctic air mass overspread the region Monday night into Tuesday and affected the area through Thursday. Wind chills as cold as 40 below to 50 below zero were reported during this event. Daily temperature records were set at both Fort Wayne and South Bend.

Below is a map courtesy of the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) of temperatures from the early morning hours of January 31st. Some locations across Illinois and Iowa set all time low temperature records.  South Bend, Indiana approached near record cold levels.  Note from the map just how expansive this dangerous and bitterly cold air was across the region.

 

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